Train System in Spain
Spain is a diverse and fantastic country with buzzing cities and huge unspoilt rural areas. Its a fabulous country to drive through and you can tour on some of the roads and not see another car for quite a while. Driving through Spain is great fun, and we are really appreciating what a great country we live in and trying to see more and more of it by car.
The trains in Spain are fast, efficient and relatively cheap.But their network is not great with many areas poorly served. When planning your journey do not assume that travelling by train will always be quicker or cheaper. Having said that, a long distance train in Spain can be half the price of a similar journey in France or Germany.
There is a lot of new development taking place on the Spanish rail system with the new Maria Zambrano Station open in Malaga and new AVE high speed links to Madrid and Antequera.
Spanish Trains Website
The Main train company in Spain is Renfe.
Below are details on how to make an online ticket reservation - leave the website in Spanish and do not switch to English at this stage.
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Use the enquiry system Compra de Billetes (ticket sales) on the left of the home page. Enter your origin, destination, travel dates and number of passengers, and select either ida y vuelta (return) or ida (one-way). Then click Buscar (search).
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A new window will open , showing the timetables & fares for your journey. Look for the drop-down box at bottom left labelled Español and change it to English.
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It is a good idea to register at this stage as you can then log in and retrieve your booking if for any reason a connection fails or the ticket pop-up fails to appear. When you are registered you can also log in to change or cancel bookings. To do this click the User log-in link at bottom left of the screen and in the My Account box complete all the information requested but just use '12345' as your postcode, as it will not accept UK postcodes. You choose your user name and password.
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The timetable & fares results page will show the normal fare (Tarifa General) for each class on each train departure and any available special fares (Tarifa Promo) with the cheap Estrella fares shown with a star logo and web fares indicated with a W logo.
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Web fares are cheap online advance purchase fares which are non-refundable, and cannot be changed but give a 60% reduction over the single full fare. Estrella fares are semi-refundable and are an advance-purchase fare giving a 40% reduction over the full single fare Both Web & Estrella fares are available to anyone of any age, and are the best deal for Spanish rail travel.
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Next select a train departure and class of travel: Turista = 2nd class, Preferente = 1st class, Club = premium 1st class (available only on AVE trains).
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If you are booking a sleeper, make sure it says cama (bed ). Cama Turista = bed in 4-berth sleeper. Cama Preferente = 1 or 2 bed. Cama G. Clase = gran clase 1 or 2 bed with private shower & toilet. Indiv = single-bed, doble = 2-berth.
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On the third page change the drop down box marked Fare or Tarifa in Spanish from General to Web or Estrella if they are available.
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Complete your details and make sure your browser will allow pop-ups or you might lose the order confirmation.
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If you get error message GU001 when paying it could be your bank blocking an unusual foreign transaction. You can try another credit card or call your bank and tell them you're making a legitimate payment.
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When you have made your reservation and paid, click "Print tickets" and this printout is your ticket with your reserved seat, coach number, travel date and train time printed on it.
On the Spanish version of the Renfe website you will also notice a box for Cercanias which are the local train services which operate from Asturias, Barcelona, Bilbao, Cadiz, Madrid, Malaga, Murcia/Alicante, Santander, San Sebastian, Seville and Valencia. You can find out timetables by clicking on the relevant area in this drop down box.
When you put the website into English you don't get the option for these Cercanias Lines but the Spanish option is pretty straightforward.
Spanish Airports with Train Lines
We provide more information on the following: Barcelona Trains - Madrid Trains - Malaga Trains - Valencia Trains
Other Airports with City Centre Train Lines
The following cities operate train services from the centre. We provide details on how to get from the airport to the city centres for:
Asturias Trains - Barcelona Trains - Bilbao Trains - Girona Trains - Jerez Trains - Madrid Trains - Malaga Trains - Murcia Trains - Reus Trains - Santander Trains - Seville Trains - Valencia Trains
